Stealing Xmas

There was a lot of ho-ho-ho about a new era of "interoperability" between Microsoft and Sun platforms as a result of last year's financial settlement between the two companies. In early December, talk of impending breakthroughs was at a fever pitch.

There was a lot of ho-ho-ho about a new era of "interoperability" between Microsoft and Sun platforms as a result of last year's financial settlement between the two companies. In early December, talk of impending breakthroughs was at a fever pitch. But, the holiday season is long passed, and Sun's attitude has suddenly become ho-hum.As reported by CNET's Brendon Chase, James Gosling, chief technology officer of Sun's Developer Products Group, recently told conference attendees in Sidney that the agreement, on some levels, "is meaning less and less."

What's this all about? Not too long ago, we had visions of .NET Framework on Solaris boxes dancing in our heads. Does this mean we won't be seeing a Java version of Office in our stockings, all stuffed with care, either?

Gosling blames the EU's ongoing actions against Microsoft. "Our agreement with them is becoming less and less relevant because of a lot of the fallout of some of the antitrust action in Europe. Europe (has) been forcing Microsoft to open up those interfaces to everyone anyway. So the agreement we have with them looks a lot like the ones that the EU are getting them to do."